


phantom heart

by orphan_account



Series: Attack on Avengers [5]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan, Thor (Movies)
Genre: "My sibling is a sack of shit but we're rly codependent", (i am trash), (no it isn't), (trash who is in love with Annie Leonhart), Annie and Reiner are non-communicative, Annie grow up pls honey, Gen, Reiner you absolute bonehead, a novel by Annie and Reiner, ahaha the longest fic in this !verse so far is mostly about Annie, my Annie is more sympathetic than Loki dwi, no big roles for anybody except the Asgard twins in this one, post everything in MCU canon, that's so surprising, with the sequel "goddammit goddammit i fucked up and was accidentally nice"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-17
Updated: 2014-06-17
Packaged: 2018-02-05 00:20:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1798648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She’s not gone in the morning like you expect her to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	phantom heart

Asgard’s princess has never been a definable quantity. You tried to fit her into many boxes in your youth- sister, friend, advisor, battlemage, but none of them were quite Annie.

After she fell ( _was thrown, she insists_ ) from the bifrost it was both harder and easier. Villain. Frost giant. Menace. Enemy. ( _sister sister sister_ ) And then she complicated everything by _dying_  on Svartalfheim, and again by coming back.

So really, you don’t quite know how to feel about Annie.

She appears in the middle of a battle against hordes of robots that you’re clearly outmatched by- they seem to be powered by magic, you don’t know how that happened, Midgardians are nothing if not innovative, and there are groans from most of the Avengers- the newest addition, Jean Kirschtein, says “Who the hell is that?”

Marco responds, voice grim. “That’s Annie, Reiner’s sister. The last time she was on-planet she was leading the Chitauri invasion.”

Looking to the rooftop from which Jean has been picking off robots with his rifle, you see the gun slide so it’s pointed at your sister. Eren beat him to it- an arrow barely misses her, and only because she dances out of the way with a feral grin.

She’s not _leading_  the robots, you know that already, so the question is what is she _doing_  here? By all appearances, just watching.

It becomes apparent when, distracted by her presence, you leave a very stupid opening for a robot to stab you in the side. The blow never comes. Annie is suddenly standing next to you, a growl bubbling deep in her throat, and the mechanical man _melts_. “No mortal-” another goes flying, “-creation will be-” a metal skull is collapsed, “-allowed to kill-” and then she’s behind you, and ripples of green magic spread throughout the mass of mechanical bodies, “-a prince of Asgard.”

_That_  was the edge you needed. The robots fall one by one, and you shuffle from foot to foot in the aftermath, call out. “Sister-”

“I am not.” She snaps, whipping around, and the breeze catches her hair, blowing it out like the tail of a comet behind her. She doesn’t keep it tied up anymore, hasn’t since she renounced you and the realm she was raised in. The little differences are what keeps letting you convince yourself that no, you aren’t getting her back. “This world is _mine_ , I will allow no other to lay claim!” She shouts, loud enough that it echoes over the comms.

And then, with a theatrical puff of green smoke that you know damn well she left _just_  to be dramatic, ( _once upon a time you would’ve laughed at that, turned to find her perched on a railing or in a tree behind you_ ) she’s gone.

Back at the tower.

Eren and Mikasa sit next to each other on the couch.

Levi sticks a cigarette between his lips and starts pacing.

Hanji polishes their glasses five times with frantic little circles before putting them on their face.

Marco sits, tense as a wire, and Jean frowns at him worriedly.

Armin oils his wings.

Hanji cleans their glasses five more times.

Levi growls, grabs a pillow off the couch, tosses it at a wall.

Eren gets out a knife and starts sharpening it.

Levi lights another cigarette.

Mikasa twists her scarf between her hands like she’s preparing to garotte somebody with it.

Hanji cleans their glasses five more times.

Levi lights another cigarette.

Jean and Marco drift towards each other like magnets.

Hanji cleans their glasses five more times.

Levi lights ano-

You get up, beat a hasty retreat to your own floor. You can’t breathe. Annie’s face is filling your head, this afternoon and dead in the realm of the dark elves and hanging off the bifrost and _just a child, hand tangled in yours, dragons made of green sparks flying about the room and twisting in her hair, “Look, Reiner, aren’t they pretty? Don’t you like them?”_  and she was your _sister_  and how did she turn into this did you make her into this you would give anything to have her _back_ -

Annie is sitting on your bed wearing a bloodstained white blouse and wrapping bandages around her abdomen with one hand while she holds the mess of her hair back out of the way. There’s a flush high across her cheekbones. “Give me a hand, would you? Given as this is your fault, you clumsy oaf.”

“Sister-” She shoots you a glare, full of barely-in-check hostility, “ _Annie_ , what are you doing here?”

She tilts her head, hand stilling. “I couldn’t find bandages. Are you going to help or not?”

You do. There’s heat rising off her skin, but she doesn’t say anything so you don’t say anything. It’s almost like when you were children, except that after she flops back on your bed when you finish, she smiles dreamily and says “I’ve cast a spell, nobody can see us. Not even the voice in the ceiling. Tell anyone I’m here and I’ll slit your throat.” That’s that. You sleep on the couch.

She’s not gone in the morning like you expect her to be. You peek into your room and she’s a tangle of blonde hair and lanky limbs and fabric, curled around a pillow. You feel homesick. You ride the elevator upstairs to have breakfast with your friends and feel like a traitor, but you resist the urge to tell them there’s a supervillain passed out in your bedroom.

You wake her when you get back, shake her shoulder roughly until her eyes drift open. She squints at you, eyes swirling from blue to red and back again, and proclaims “I think I’ve been poisoned.” before promptly falling back asleep.

She’s going to hate you more for interfering, but if she was going to get fussy about your involvement she shouldn’t have come to your home. She shouldn’t have stayed. Common sense, really. You grab a healing stone and crush it over the puncture wound in her side.

Her breathing eases, the flush drains from her face. She shifts, curls tighter around the pillow and clutches in with one arm while the other moves around, hand palm up in front of her face, Like when she was a child.

You lay down with your fingers just barely touching hers and fall asleep to dream about two royal children running through the golden city.

You wake up to the half-slam of the door to the bathroom adjoining your bedroom. Annie emerges from it wrapped in a towel and shrouded in steam. “Ugh, it’s freezing in here. You would think your Man of Iron, with all his resources, would be able to pay for heating.” She grouses, tying her damp hair into a bun. She reminds you of your mother, for just a moment, despite her lack of actual similarity to the late queen. She stalks past the bed, and you, and you hear the rustle of a dropped towel before a warm breeze wafts through the room. When she returns to your field of vision, her hair is dry and brushing the floor and she’s wearing Midgardian clothes. You could almost fit her in with the youth and worldview of your teammates, or with any young mortal woman on the street. “Passable?” She asks flatly, spinning in a tight circle. “Won’t do to go among my rivals looking wounded.”

“You look fine.” You murmur, sitting up reluctantly. Maybe if you don’t move too much the spell won’t break and you can pretend you aren’t a prince of Asgard and she isn’t a former princess and current outlaw.

She nods sharply and then pauses, gives you a disapproving look. “This doesn’t change anything, Reiner.”

“Of course it changes things.” You say, before you can stop yourself. “If nothing is changed why did you intervene in that fight?”

Her mouth twists into a scowl. “I have laid claim to this world. If you and your pet mortals can’t defend it, I must cover your inadequacy. It would be such a shame to have the challenge of conquering taken from me.”

“You didn’t step in until I was about to be killed.”

At that, she steps closer to you, cool hand on your jaw. She looks almost tender for a moment, and then her eyes go red and her hand becomes alarmingly cold. “No one is going to kill you except _me_ , my prince.” She purrs, and then steps away. “The very fact that you think anything can be changed so easily proves that _nothing_  is different, you stubborn fool.” She looks almost disappointed.

You don’t think of anything to say until she’s at the door. “If this wasn’t a truce between the two of us, what was it?” You ask, and she pauses, fingers on the doorframe.

“Sentiment. Au revoir, brother.”

And then she’s gone.

**Author's Note:**

> The title may require a little explanation? Like, you always hear about phantom limbs, imagining you're feeling a limb that isn't there anymore, so I just figured? Yeah. I dunno.


End file.
